


A Heartbeat Away

by depressed-sock (jinxedragon)



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Nightmares, Nolan is a medium, au kinda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:16:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27297016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jinxedragon/pseuds/depressed-sock
Summary: Nolan's dealt with the paranormal all his life, he just hasn't had a good reason to tell his team yet. And no matter how much he wants to avoid that conversation he can't keep putting It off forever.Especially not when their next mission needs his particular talents to save the day.
Relationships: m!detective/ mason
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	A Heartbeat Away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw: blood, violence, nightmare

It starts as a dream. A soft nothing that won’t be important or fantastic enough to remember when he finally wakes. Not until the dream begins to change at least. A feeling of something other crawling its way in and through. Rotting away any sense of safety until he's left staring at the woods that surround him.

The area dimly lit by a full moon that casts more shadows against the trees than there should be in reality. All of them sitting in waiting. Even as a heavy fog drifts low, clinging to whatever it can touch. His body shivers against it, ice clinging to his eyelashes. His attempts to blink it away, but fails miserably as they instead try to glue his eyelids shut.

He’s very much aware of the fact that he's still asleep. But it does not stop the sudden rise of panic in his chest as glowing eyes begin to dot the woods around him. His breathing grows ragged, coming out as hot puffs of steaming air. The area falls into a quiet pause before a crack of thunder forces the shadows move as one. He runs. Following the invisible path laid out before him.

The shadows chase him, unseen claws slashing into his bare back. Leaving him too distracted to step carefully, bare feet catching on a root he hadn’t seen in his rush. He falls to the ground, hands digging painfully into the broken brush beneath him and he can feel a wave of foreign anger bubbling in his gut.

Until the moment finally comes. Something spearing through his chest, pinning him in a kneeled position against the forest floor. The metallic glint catches his eye and leaves him with only the ability to watch as his blood drips down the metal that protrudes from his chest. His blood steaming against the cold air until it too eventually freezes over. He can still feel the pain searing through him as his eye’s finally snap open.

It takes a moment to ground himself, breaths coming out in short gasps as he tries to focus on the room around him. The plain white wall to his right catching his eye as dark shadows suddenly scatter from it and into darker corners of the room. Leaving him alone to stare at where they had gathered.

 _Eyes, shadows, claws, pain, cold._ His mind runs through the main details but doesn’t bother to hold in the rest of the dream. Mostly because he already knows this one by heart. It’s a familiar nightmare, one of many he’s had and one of many he will have. Just an echo of a life long gone before his own ever started.

 _Just an echo_... Unlike the thing he can still sense taking up residence in his room.

His first thought is to ignore it. To try and go back to what little bit of sleep awaits him. It's all just another part of his usual nighttime routine. But something at the back of his mind is screaming at him that the presence feels off. That it’s not one of his usual guests.

So he forces himself to wake further, eyelids still heavy and wanting for sleep. His hazy gaze staring at the wall for some kind of answer that he knows is there. Before finally realizing exactly what’s wrong. It doesn't match the memory of the one in his home.

 _Right…_ Of course, it doesn’t. He didn’t want to drive back so late at night so he stayed at the warehouse with the rest of the team. Sleeping in a room made for him but not ' _made_ ' for him.

 _Hell._ He knew he should have done a check but the last time he stayed nothing seemed off, so he’d just assumed there were no extra guests. Or that if there truly were any, the agency would have dealt with it.

This is what he gets for letting his guard down.

With a sigh, he finally gives in to the feeling creeping up his spine. Turning to lie on his back, glaring up at the ceiling. _At the shadow who watches back_.

He'd like to say he was going to just ignore it and pretend he doesn’t see it. Try and get some kind of sleep before he truly has to get up for the day. It’d be stupid for him to just leave it though. Eventually, it’d realize he could sense it and then he’d have to try and dodge it whenever the team was around. Which would lead to more questions he wasn’t ready to answer.

"So I'm guessing this is where you either talk my ear off or try to make my life hell." He flinches as his voice cracks through the air like a whip rather than the whisper it was intended to be.

It tilts its head to the side in response, eyes temporarily blinking in and out of existence. A hand stretches forward from it, hovering inches above his face until he can just barely make out gnarled skin that clings tight to bony fingers.

"I can't help you." His voice holds steady even as it reaches further down, hand brushing against the faint scars on his neck. Skin freezing beneath its touch. He’s sure it can feel his heart pounding in his chest. Maybe this is something he should have been prepared for or at least something he should be used to by now.

But his life has never gotten easier knowing what the touch of death feels like.

The knock comes suddenly. A soft rap against the door that has the shadow snapping its hand back, retreating in a panic as he scrambles out of his covers. His hand blindly fumbling on his bedside table for his glasses. Whipping them immediately to his eyes once he finds them. Trying his best to catch a clearer glimpse of the spirit only to find it gone by the time his glasses sit crooked on his nose.

"Nolan, are you okay?" Nat's concerned voice comes through the door.

He takes a deep breath, rubbing the palms of his hands against his eyes before fixing his glasses firmly into place. "I'm fine." He mumbles before throwing his blankets fully off and getting up to cross the room. He opens the door, leaning heavily against it, and gives her a tired shrug, "Just a bad dream."

She looks at him with a frown, her eyebrows pinched in concern as she takes in the deep bags under his eyes. "Are you sure you're ok? It looks like you haven't been sleeping at all."

"I'm fine Nat,” his voice softens, “Just have had a bunch of late shifts at the police station recently.”

“Of course.” she nods her head in understanding, hands fidgeting restlessly like she wants to say more. She seems to weigh her words before finally deciding to softly ask, “Was it about Murphy?”

“No. Not this time at least,” he shrugs again looking away from her and down the hall. Like he’s afraid someone else might be listening. A sense of paranoia he’s never fully gotten rid of from his relationship with Bobby.

He shakes his head before focusing back on her, “But honestly nightmares are just a…” He pauses as he tries to find the words, “Well they’re just a usual occurrence for me. Even before the whole Murphy fiasco. It’s nothing to worry about.”

She hesitates a moment. Studying him before giving in with a sigh, "Well if you need help with anything you know we'll do our best to help, right?"

"Yes, I’m aware." He smiles softly, "But what I really need right now is coffee."

"You're not going to try and go back to sleep?"

"Couldn't even if I wanted to." He sighs, as he closes the door behind him and begins to walk towards the kitchen. Nat keeping pace with him even though he feels like he’s moving in slow motion.

He’s not going to be able to sleep here again without doing a thorough check-in with the unaccounted for guest that’s roaming around. _Should have done a check of the room._ Hell, he should have checked the whole warehouse. _He knows better._ But he’s gotten too complacent by expecting everything to be like his apartment. The safety of it rotting away his built up defenses.

At least, this was a wake-up call with a safety net. If he needs too, _really needs to_ , he can tell the team what the issue is. Of course, that’s a last resort only. Especially considering how past experiences have gone when he’s tried to tell someone he cares about. In his head he knows it’d be different with them, they’re vampires after all. Can’t get much more into the supernatural than being a supernatural.

The main issue would end up being them informing Rebecca about it.

The cold air of the hallway sends a chill down his spine and he finds himself stuffing his hands into his sweatpants pockets, hunching forward slightly as he tries to ignore the growing anxiety building beneath his skin. Rebecca finding out is absolutely the last thing he needs in his life.

Nat watches him, her pace steady as she walks beside him. Looking more and more like she wants to say something else but instead, she forces herself to focus on the hallway ahead of them. He knows she can probably tell that there's something more off with him than he's letting on.

Mercifully she doesn't bring it up.

And it’s not long before they’re sitting across the table from one another, a warm cup of coffee in his hand while she sips on her tea. The whole place feeling unnaturally quiet with the others all asleep.

“Seems like everyone decided to try and get some sleep tonight. So what are you doing up?” he asks to fill the silence.

“I was going to do some reading in the library,” she hums, “I have a couple of series I’m catching up on.”

“You have something you’re not caught up on? With all the time you’ve had?” He smirks as she rolls her eyes.

“I don’t know if you noticed but we’ve been a little busy recently,” she laughs, her fingers tapping gently against her cup.

“Maybe I’ll head that way with you then. I still need to take an actual crack at the library considering all we did last time was research.”

She gives him an unimpressed look, “Right, _research_.”

“Hey!” he barks out a laugh, “I definitely did research before I got…” he tilts his head to the side with a smirk, “ _distracted_.” Not as distracted as he would have preferred but something he and Mason definitely made up for later.

She groans in complaint, setting her cup down to allow her to massage her temples, “I swear you’re just as bad as him.”

“Thank you.” His smirk turns into a wide grin.

“That was definitely not a compliment.”

“Oh I know.” He wiggles his eyebrows as he takes another sip of coffee.

Nat responding back with a roll of her eyes and immediately hiding her own smile behind her cup. Their soft chatter soon feeling the space and drawing the other in one by one.

Having someone to hang around after a nightmare... It’s nicer than he remembers and something he didn’t realize exactly how much he’s missed.


End file.
